Education

DISD makes strides, but progress hinges on solving broader problems

The greatest challenges facing the Dallas Independent School District are the ones outside the classroom:

Nine out of 10 students live in poverty. Four out of 10 are not fluent in English.

That means Dallas has a tougher job educating kids than in peer cities such as Austin, Denver and Seattle. Dallas students are more likely to be hungry, to lack health insurance and to have parents without college degrees.

“We can’t solve all of these problems alone in our education system. They’re related to broader and deeper structural problems,” said Mark Warren, a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston who studies education reform across the nation.

Communities thrive when residents have decent jobs, homes and medical care, he said, and when kids have easy access to libraries, recreation centers and sports programs.

“We have to think comprehensively,” Warren said. “We can’t let everything else fall apart and expect the schools are going to pick up the pieces.”

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SAT results, 2012

SAT scores tend to be lower if a high percentage of students take the test, or if a high percentage of them are from low-income families. The News did a statistical analysis that controls for those two factors and provides a fairer comparison.

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As Dallas ISD’s demographics have grown more challenging in the last decade, state data suggests the district is improving. Consider:

Students are increasingly likely to earn a high school diploma. From 2009 to 2012, Dallas ISD’s graduation rate climbed from 68 percent to 81 percent. The statewide rate is higher, but Dallas ISD made bigger gains. That means the gap is closing.

Dallas ISD students are more likely to be prepared for college. From 2006 to 2012, the share of graduates deemed “college ready” by the state jumped from 20 percent to 49 percent. While that’s still below the state average, the gap is closing.

Compared with the state average, Dallas ISD students are more likely to take the SAT or ACT, which most universities require for admission. They’re also more likely to take Advanced Placement exams, which could help them earn college credit.

Dallas ISD’s average SAT score was in the bottom third among peer cities. But after controlling for two big factors that affect scores — the percentage of students who take the test and those who are low-income — Dallas did better than expected.

Dallas ISD has its gems, including magnet schools. The School for the Talented and Gifted and the School of Science and Engineering routinely land top spots in national rankings. But many large comprehensive high schools struggle year after year.

And some families who adore their elementary school hesitate to send their kids to the local middle or high school that has a bad reputation.

To hear Mayor Mike Rawlings tell it, Dallas public schools are a mess. He has called the district’s academic performance a “disaster.”

By some measures that affect school-age children, the city is a disaster, too.

In 2012, 30 percent of nonelderly residents had no health insurance — only El Paso had a higher rate. The city ranks third among its peers in income inequality. And Dallas’ libraries are open only 40 hours a week on average, well below peer cities such as Columbus, Ohio (60 hours), Seattle (50) and Denver (50).

Rawlings backs an effort to turn Dallas ISD into a home-rule charter district, which could free it of some state rules on governance, teacher contracts and curriculum.

In some of Dallas’ peer cities, the mayor has direct control over the school system, usually by appointing some or all of the school board and sometimes the superintendent.

A mayoral takeover in Washington, D.C., has helped improve education there, said Jane Hannaway, vice president of the American Institutes for Research. By having the top elected official in charge, she said, “it raised the profile of education and made it more public.”

“It’s much more affordable to start something small, figure out what works, and then put money there.”

Juanita Wallace (center), president of the Dallas NAACP, screams in to a megaphone during a "home-rule" initiative protest. (G.J. McCarthy/The Dallas Morning News)

The city helped coordinate health and other services, she said. “Students of all backgrounds made big gains.”

Research on the effectiveness of mayoral control is mixed, though.

Some Dallas school and civic leaders say Rawlings and the City Council could better serve Dallas ISD by improving city services.

DISD trustee Dan Micciche has made suggestions: Open the city’s libraries on additional days. Offer space for prekindergarten programs. Put free Wi-Fi across the city to help students with no Internet access at home. Make city streets safer around schools. And lobby the state to restore education dollars and allow schools to start the school year sooner.

“We must not lose focus on what we can do to improve our schools and help our students while a debate goes on about the governance structure of our schools,” Micciche wrote in an opinion piece for The News.

Warren, the University of Massachusetts scholar, cited efforts in New York, Ohio and elsewhere to make schools more of a community center — with health clinics or public libraries right in the school.

City leaders can help by supporting pilot programs in schools, said Matthew Chingos of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy.